SM5S: Affinity by Sarah Waters

1 book I read: Affinity by Sarah Waters2 words that describe the book: Victorian spiritualism

3 settings and/or characters I met:

The setting is London in the 1870's.

Margaret Prior is a sad and lonely young woman. She has lost her lover who has now married her brother and her beloved father whose work she shared has died. She becomes a prison visitor with the intention of writing about Millbank Prison and its inmates.

Selina Dawes is a disgraced medium, sent to prison for five years after a woman died following one of her seances.

4 things I liked/disliked about the book:

While I didn't like what I was reading the look inside a woman's prison was interesting. Some of the crimes were so petty they didn't seem to warrant such a punishment and the treatment of the women was cruel and totally lacking in compassion. It also reflects the very restricted lives of all women of that time.

I enjoyed Selina's accounts of her work as a medium. Spiritualism underwent a huge revival after 1850 and many Victorians consulted mediums and attended seances .

I love Sarah Waters writing - it's vivid and imaginative and the atmosphere she creates with her imagery is as dark and heavy as the subject...

'There have come fogs, too-yellow fogs and brown fogs, and fogs so black they might be liquid soot-fogs that seem to rise from the pavements as if brewed in the sewers in diabolical engines.'

At one point I decided that Affinity was going to be different from her other books I'd read - centred more on the relationship of Margaret and Selina and how they would overcome the difficulties facing them. I really should have known better because the diabolically clever Sarah Waters sucked me right and I was totally unprepared for the ending.............it was devastating!!

5 Stars or less for my rating.

4 Stars for Affinity................for me it didn't quite measure up to either Fingersmith or The Little Stranger but it's still very, very good.

Devastating is exactly the word I would use too. I'm looking forward to re-reading 'Fingersmith' again. I loved both 'The Little Stranger' and especially 'The Night Watch'. Waters is such a beautiful writer.